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Ok - I give up - sorry I mentioned it 🙂 When we were in line at our terminal at Heathrow there was a section along the wall that looked to be about 20-30' long and if I recall it was roped off and the sign on the wall above it said "Global Entry." There were maybe 8-10 people doing whatever they were doing. I get it - GE doesn't do LHR. But at the time, seeing that, and not knowing any different I assumed people were using GE instead of being in the line with the other 2,000 people. What it actually was - maybe a one day event - maybe just information - I don't know. And now - I don't even care :-)

This thread need another bump 🙂 I was Air Force from 1963 to 1993 and in a few months will have been retired as long as I was on active duty (30 years :-). Sue and I have been cruising for about 20 years - mostly on Princess. After telling all our friends 3 years ago we were done with cruising...we took a British Isles cruise last Sep/Oct to celebrate our 50th, and we took an 11 day Christmas cruise in the Caribbean - both Princess. We have booked a partial Panama Canal cruise out of FLL in Nov because while we have done a full transit, I want to see the new locks. We also have a 14 day Caribbean cruise out of FLL booked for Feb 2024. After that we're done cruising!! Maybe 🙂 We bought Princess stock about the time we started cruising for $8 a share and enjoyed the quarterly dividends and OBC many many times! We watched the Princess stock go way up again, and then way down and sold it but immediately bought more for $8 again. So far that $800 investment has given us $700 in OBC in the past year or so - so even though they stopped the dividends it's been a great investment. Between that and the Military OBC Princess has been very good to us, and while things aren't the same as they were 20 years ago I still find it hard to cheat on her!

Dredging up an older thread 🙂 I was looking for an answer to a question I had when I saw this post. It didn't answer my question - but it was the right subject 🙂 I just saw in a post someone said that if you were Elite on a 14 day (or longer I suppose) cruise they got 2 set-ups. I never heard that before and it dawned on me we haven't taken a 14 day cruise since we reached Elite. IF that is true does it only apply if they are booked as two 7 day cruises combined rather than as one 14 day cruise? I realize that an Elite in a suite would get 2 set-ups which isn't our case - and with the Plus Package we rarely drink anything from the set-up other than the soft drinks and beer - but inquiring minds....

Elites already get free laundry service - are you talking about something different?

Agree! Load them into the suitcases and hope the airline loses them! 🙂

Just a quick side note - you don't have to join AARP - just sign up on their Rewards Page. Also - it was noted there is a limit of 5 cards a month - that is per person! Yesterday I bought 5 and my DW bought 5 - so if you are running out of time that can come in handy 🙂

We saved another $500 today by purchasing AARP gift cards to pay for our Nov cruise. First we applied for a new credit card that gives a large sign up bonus (in this case 170,000 IHG points) and requires you to spend X amount in 3-4 months. Got the card in the mail today, the minimum spend requirement has now been met, and we saved $500 🙂 We used gift cards to pay for the two cruises we took a few months ago and had no issue having our TA apply them.

I paid for our cruise last Sep and another one in Dec using only gift cards (after the deposit) - and I use a TA. There were no issues. In fact I just saved $500 today buying more for a cruise in Nov.

Thanks for that clarification. So what I was seeing at Heathrow obviously was people applying for GE - not using it. We use it and don't have a handy place to sign up - they don't use it and have a big sign up area. Sounds like a government thing :-)

Understand - but we're talking about Princess.

The fact that you have a table for just your party is in your favor. We had a table for 2 on our last two cruises (Oct & Dec) and it rarely took over an hour from start to finish because we didn't have to wait for others to finish before the waiter brought the next course. I know some people do not prefer early dining, but I think I';d go for the 6:30 seating rather than having to worry every night how long it was going to be and if we'd make it to the show.

We took a British Isles cruise last Fall and went through Heathrow. It was a total disaster and it took hours getting through various lines that just led to other lines. Other than when we were in the military we haven't really done any international travel in years. While in a line at Heathrow with several thousands of others I saw the Global Entry desk off to the right with 6 people being processed. I was determined that when we got back home I would check it out. Several of our credit cards will pay for it, but since we almost always received TSA Pre-check when we travel in the USA I just never considered it. But as soon as we got home I started checking and like the last poster said there were no Global Entry locations local and the one I could find an hour away didn't have appts as far out as 6 months. Since we don't have any plans for another international trip I decided to just get the TSA Pre-check which was local and I could get an appt anytime. But if we ever decide to go international again I will definitely look at Global Entry again. I have occasionally looked at future cruises out of Southampton and just say no way I'm going through that again without GE!

Not that it really matters, but since I have all our cruise cards in a folder I just went and checked - and of our 18 Princess cruises the only card that had our cabin number (with or without a deck designation) was our first cruise in 2002. The rest all have all sorts of numbers, but they don't match up with our cabin #.

I don't know about the tip issue - but $110 a day per person for Club Class?? I suppose because you can't get one of those mini suites without the Club Class and before Club Class we paid extra to get those cabins as AA mini-suites so that would have to be calculated in... I just checked and I'm paying $31 per person a day extra to have a premium balcony cabin instead of a regular balcony cabin on our Nov cruise - and they are identical cabins What's even more interesting is on our Feb 2024 cruise on the same ship, in the same cabin we are paying $54 extra a day....

I gave in a few weeks ago and submitted the Medallion order that shows a $10 shipping charge - even though our booking shows a $10 allowance for shipping for both of us. But so far we have not been charged - but then again we don't leave until November. If they bill upon order the charge isn't added, if they bill when they ship hopefully it will be resolved by then. if not I was in the military for 30 years and nothing makes me happier than bitching 🙂

I asked our TA about flowers and she was able to order them for me and they were waiting in our cabin on our Christmas cruise. I hope they get back to where they can be ordered using the gift menu....

I think a lot of us forget how it was - that first time - and you know what they say about your first! Our first (and what we thought would be our only) cruise was on the Golden Princess on a Canada/New England cruise. I went with a mini suite just to top off the experience. We aren't newbie travelers - I was in the military for 30 years and spent most of that with travel bags handy. But we were amazed as soon as we got on the ship. If there were pictures (and I pray there aren't) of us walking around the ship that first day our mouths would be open and our eyes like we just took a hit (so I'm told). It was a new world and we were thrilled to be part of it. Then we went to dinner.... Our one and only experience with traditional dining and we ended up at a table with 6 ladies, they all either just got off a different ship, were using this one to get to another ship - or both. They all must have been cold because they all had fur coats, they talked a lot about how many husbands they had gone through but mostly they just bitched. You name it - they bitched about it - the ship, the cabins, the food, the people they were forced to eat with at dinner - EVERYTHING. It made us wonder why we were so damn excited... 26 cruises later (5 Canada/New England) our mouths aren't open quite as much but we are still in awe that we get to cruise. BUT we don't do traditional dining after that first one :-)

We did a British Isles cruise out of England that started 30 Sep - we used it to celebrate our 50th on the Emerald Princess. Then we did an 11 day Christmas cruise on the Ruby Princess to the Caribbean out of Galveston. Our cruises in Nov and Feb will both be on the Emerald.

We did Stonehenge on a regular tour in October as part of our British Isles cruise - and while I wasn't too excited about going I ended up really enjoying it - so I hope you get to go. Timing at Heathrow scares me - and frankly after that last cruise I can't ever imagine going to Heathrow again. I have looked at some other cruises I would like to do but they all involve Southampton - and unless I can find an alternate way to get there those cruises won't get booked. It was terrible. Lines in one area that led to more lines in another area so that you could get in another line. Trying to get through passport control took 2 hours alone. I'm sure it varies depending on the time of day and how many flights there are - but if you think you are cutting it close - it's probably too close!

A few years ago we were on a shore excursion, can't remember where, and we were all looking over a cliff at the water and the shoreline. Behind us there were shops set us to give us the opportunity to buy a reminder of our visit 🙂 I noticed 3 or 4 military guys all decked out in green and long and short guns standing by the shops. I went over to say hello and thank them and asked why they were there - and the response was "because you are here." I felt safer - not safe - but safer 🙂

For our cruise in Sep/Oct and again in Dec we were never asked any of the health questions and we did not have a form online or in paper form.

We do Keurig for our coffee at home - mainly because I like strong coffee and DW likes it much milder so it's convenient. But a few months ago someone asked me if I ever smelled the plastic container while I was drinking my coffee...now I can't drink it without smelling it 🙂

Well...that is normally the default position....

Maybe I'm going as crazy as my DW says I am, but I seem to remember being able to see our Specialty Restaurant reservations somewhere on the Princess site or Medallion App - but if it's there, I can't find it. I made reservations for the steakhouse for a night during our Nov cruise. It shows up when I check our dining schedule for that night, and it shows up on my credit card bill (but just that I paid Princess $78). Seems like I used to get an email from Princess as well. Is my DW correct???